James Ellroy’s L.A.: City of Demons

Investigation Discovery is launching a new series called James Ellroy’s L.A.: City of Demons, in which author James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential) takes a fresh look at some of Hollywood’s most notorious crimes from the past to the present.

The six-part series showcases Ellroy’s larger-than-life personality, and debuts tomorrow night (Wednesday, January 19th at 10PM ET) with the episode “Dead Women Own Me:”

The series begins with a deeply personal account of the genesis of Ellroy’s fascination with crime: the unsolved murder of his mother in 1958. This harrowing event formed his moral and spiritual attachment to devastated women. “Murdered women own me,” he narrates, and after a long downward spiral with drugs, booze and petty crime, the obsession provided him with the fire and fury to write his unprecedentedly praised crime novels and memoirs. “Dead Women Own Me” also highlights the homicides of a young 16-year-old girl murdered in her own home and a woman kidnapped while using an ATM machine.

James Ellroy is widely recognized as the world’s greatest living crime writer. His L.A. Quartet novels – The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz – have won numerous awards and were international bestsellers. His Underworld U.S.A. novels – American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover – were even more acclaimed. Ellroy’s memoir, My Dark Places, was a Time Best Book and a New York Times Notable Book. Ellroy’s most recent memoir, The Hilliker Curse, was recently published by Alfred A. Knopf. To learn more about Ellroy, visit his website.

Last year at the Festival of Books was the first time I caught him in person. He and Joseph Wambaugh on the same book panel, and it was wild!

sabrina ogden

January 18, 2011 - 3:05 pm

Just one more thing to add to my TV watching schedule. Did I tell you that Richard was upset with Twitter because one of my followers got me hooked on the Dr. Who show? Well, the only thing that will keep him from getting upset with me adding this to our Recording Schedule is that it is coming from my favorite book blogging, tv watching, music loving monkey!